Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are related fields developed in the late 20th century that provide an artificial sensory experience to end-users. VR provides a computer generated environment into which a person can immerse oneself and interact with. AR is similar to VR in that it provides a computer generated, immersive environment, but it also includes aspects of the real world as part of the sensory experience (e.g., simultaneous, overlapping views of the real world with computer generated images). VR and AR have found growing use in many different segments of today's society, including entertainment (e.g., video games), research (e.g., neuroscience) and medical applications (e.g., robotic assisted surgery).
As VR and AR have become more accessible, interest has grown amongst a subset of users in combining VR/AR with gaze tracking. Gaze tracking is tracking or monitoring the direction of a person's gaze (i.e., tracking or monitoring where a person is looking). Gaze tracking can provide information about a user's attention, perception, cognition, eye-hand coordination and other neurological functions. Gaze tracking by itself is currently used in scientific research and medical assessment for these purposes, and so these fields have much to gain from the addition of gaze tracking to VR/AR.